Data Protection

The data you confide to us in order to manage your dossier are essentially personal data. 

Our law practice scrupulously complies with the applicable legislation in this field as well as in all others. Here you can read how we do so:

WHY DO WE PROCESS YOUR DATA? 

MANAGEMENT OF YOUR DOSSIER

Purpose – The data that you communicate to us and those that we receive from opposing parties concerning you are obviously processed in order to carry out our contractual mission of representation or consultation and in order to communicate with you on this subject.

Categories of data – They may include your surname, first name, image, profession, domicile or residence, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address, date and place of birth, civil status, national register and identity card numbers, bank account number, identifiers, passwords, connections (in case of use of our extranet), correspondences, various supporting documents, procedural documents, etc.

Special data – If necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal right, we may also process data revealing your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, as well as genetic data, biometric data, data concerning your health, your sex life or your sexual orientation.

Criminal data – Data relating to criminal convictions, criminal offences or related security measures may also be processed if your defence so requires.

Strictly necessary? – All those data are thus necessary for the execution of the mission you confide to us. Without them, we cannot carry out our mission.

Recipients of the data – Their disclosure to lawyers of other parties, courts, experts, technical advisors, notaries, mediators, arbitrators or bailiffs may be necessary for the performance of our mission.

Duration – The data particular to each dossier you confide to us are stored during five (5) years after its termination and the common data are stored during five (5) years after the last assignment you confided to us.

MANAGEMENT OF OUR CONTRACTUAL RELATIONSHIP

Purpose – Your contact and financial data are also used in order to proceed to the billing and recovery of our services, or to inform you about a change to the Agreement or the Privacy Policy (including new purposes). These data are therefore necessary to the execution of our agreement. 

Recipients of the data – They are transmitted to the tax and social administrations, to our social secretariat and to our accountant. They may be transmitted to our lawyer or to a bailiff in the event of legal recovery. 

Period – We are required to store these billing data until our tax and accounting obligations expire, i.e. for seven (7) full fiscal years.

PROMOTION OF OUR SERVICES

Inform certain third parties – If you give your consent, we could invoke our contractual relationship up to five (5) years after its termination in order to reply to a procurement contract or a private tender for legal services. In that hypothesis, our law practice may indeed, in strict compliance with the lawyer’s Code of Ethics, be required to reveal the names of the clients for whom it intervenes or has intervened in the matter concerned, just as it may provide information relating to the subject matter of the contract in the dossiers it handles or has handled. The communicated information is, in no case, related to your private life.

COMPLIANCE WITH OUR LEGAL OBLIGATIONS

Identification – Our law practice complies with its legal obligations in terms of verifying the absence of conflicts of interest and client identification in pursuance with the law of 18 September 2017 on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and on the limitation of the use of cash. The data relating to your identity and the copy of identity documents may then be transmitted to our chairman of the Bar and to the supervisory authority. For this purpose, they are stored ten (10) years after termination of the last mission you confided to us. 

SECURITY OF OUR OFFICES AND MAINTENANCE OF OUR FACILITIES

IT maintenance – Our subcontractors in charge of the IT infrastructure, our management program, the creation and maintenance of our website and extranet may have access to your data to the extent which is strictly necessary for the execution of their respective missions.

LOCATION OF YOUR DATA 

In the European Union – Your data are exclusively stored on servers located within the EU. They will not be transferred to a country that does not offer an adequate level of protection, unless the processing of your dossier requires the sharing of information with legal professionals from countries other than EU Member States. In this case, we would ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place for this transfer.

WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS?

Information – This right is exercised through this document. If the data processed include the data of your staff, you guarantee to make them acquainted with this document.

Access and rectification – You have the right to access your data and have them rectified if necessary.

Objection – You may object against the processing of your data by us on the basis of our legitimate interest.

Withdraw your consent – When data are processed pursuant to your consent, you may at any time withdraw this decision, without questioning the past processing. 

Erasure – You may obtain the erasure of your data or the restriction of processing under the conditions provided for in Articles 17 and 18 of the General Data Protection Regulation.

Portability – The data you have provided to us may be communicated to you or transmitted to a colleague in electronic format.

WHO TO CONTACT?

Your data controller (Legalis advocaten BV BVBA, with registered office in 3980 Tessenderlo, Eersels 56) and his data protection officer (Tel. +32 67 12 01 ; info@legalis.be) are at your disposal for any question and, subject to proof of your identity, for any request relating to the rights set out above.

If you would like further information or if you wish to lodge a complaint, please contact the Data Protection Authority (Rue de la Presse, 35 – 1000 Brussels, Tel. + 32 2 274 48 00 – contact@apd-gba.be).

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